Thumb of Michigan | Iowajim - 11/22/2024 23:00
It seems to me there is more ADHD in kids these days. I do know it can come from the mother taking drugs during pregnancy. We have a granddaughter who has ADHD. It probably came from drugs given to our daughter for premature labor. Our granddaughter is very sweet and graduated from a university with high grades but she has to take her medicine to keep focused.
My stepson had a fairly serious case of ADHD from birth. My daughter has it, but not as pronounced.
In both kids, artificial colors and flavors made a huge difference in their behavior. Neither were mean or destructive to others when they happened to eat anything with yellow or red coloring, but the energy level increased by maybe 10-fold in my daughter, 100 fold in my stepson. They could both be disruptive (in school for example) in that if they ate anything with the coloring in it, they kind of went into their own world- hyper focusing on whatever caught their interest at the moment. And sometimes that meant they got a little loud, or hurt themselves running around.
My wife was very proactive when the stepson was young on avoiding the things that set him off. He could read food labels when he was 3, and knew what to look for. When he got to pre school and regular school, he did fine- as long as he didn't have a teacher convincing him that one little treat couldn't possibly be a problem. He knew enough not to take anything from his friends, but you're supposed to be able to trust adults. So, what typically happened, was that on the first day of school every year my wife would meet with the teacher, explain the issue, and usually it was enough. She'd try to meet with them again in front of holidays. Halloween and Valentines Day could be pretty brutal. Sometimes it wasn't though. So, after seeing what could happen when they convinced him that one Valentines Day cookie or candy couldn't hurt, wife would get a phone call and a recommendation that the kid needs Ritalin. Which wasn't going to happen. She wasn't going to allow him to take anything with so many bad side effects when it was pretty simple to avoid the issue in the first place.
My daughters problems with ADHD were way less pronounced. She was very good at avoiding foods that may be an issue for her.
Many people blame sugar as the basis for ADHD. Very well could be in some kids, never made any difference either way with our 2.
I suppose Ritalin is the answer for some, but it carries some problems with it. Teachers love it, the kid will settle down and sit in the corner drooling all day. Kid might not learn much, because they're all doped up. Drugs should be the last choice, not the first.
Lots of people think behavior related to ADHD is bad parenting and the issue can be fixed with a good beating of the kid. Thats about as effective as beating a kid who has cancer and expecting a good beat down of the kid to fix it. Results will be the same. Our kids didn't want to have ADHD, with my stepson in particular he did everything he could to prevent an outburst. But when it happened, it wasn't anything that was going to get beat out of him. Anyone that wants to suggest that as answer either has no clue about the affliction, or is just a mean bully ahole.
Yes, there are kids who don't get good parenting. That doesn't mean all of them are that way, bothers me when someone wants to lump all kids under that umbrella I guess. |
Running across people who should be medicated
